Plumbing saga

[magid]

A while back, the faucet on the kitchen sink became harder to turn off completely. It's a single-handle one, so futzing around with angles and directions sometimes helped. Then it progressed to a more constant leaking, and less water pressure when on. Which should have gotten me to do more than replace little rubber gasket-things, but that's all I did.

Until I came home and found that the arm of the faucet had a row of little holes in it, spraying water all over the place. How these suddenly appeared, I have no clue.

So, I put out my desperate plea for help, and Bubblebabble came to help. Well, do. He turned off the water to the sink, made more challenging because (a) the under-sink cabinet is half the width of the sink, because the rest of it is taken up by a dishwasher, and (b) the disposal was in the way. We went to Home Despot and acquired tools and a new faucet, which would have been sufficient had this been a more normal set up.

However, it wasn't. The angles sucked, and even with a basin wrench and WD-40, one of the bolts wasn't moving.

And so the amateurs were defeated.

I called plumbers, and ended up taking the day off to be home when the plumber arrived.

He had to take the disposal out (but at least not the dishwasher) to get at the area, and the shut-off valves weren't working well enough, so we had to go down to the basement to turn the water off to my apartment. Then it was just a matter of getting the old faucet out... which turned out to be nontrivial even for him, requiring not just a wrench, but a saw: the bolt was well and truly rusted in place. And of course, everything was trickier because of the space constraints. I asked the plumber how this rated, and he said it was one of the trickier faucet replacements he's done in the 20+ years he's been working. Great...

Once it was out and I cleaned up as much of the gunk and rust as I could, the new faucet went in, with putty to keep everything watertight. Except that once it was installed, it was clear that the handle moved depending on where the faucet was. Which meant that the temperature would change if I moved the faucet right or left. Not good. The plumber declared the faucet defective. Oy.

He had a faucet with him, but I didn't want a two-handled faucet for the kitchen; I want to be able to use it one-wristed, when my hands are covered in whatever. He said he could come back after I got another faucet from Home Despot, possibly the next day, but I needed to be able to cook for dinner tonight. Perhaps the hardware store in Inman Square would have an appropriate faucet? I called, and my luck had turned: they had one in stock, and the plumber asked for some more flexible tubing to attach to the standard length, given the fit issues. I drove there (*blush* I can't believe I drove to Inman from my house. But the plumber pointed out that he was on the clock and driving would be faster, and I really wanted to keep it under 2 hours, rather than 3.), picked it up, and zoomed back to the house. This time, it worked. Thank goodness.

So, one personal day, two faucets and two plumber-hours later, functional sinkness! Huzzah!

Comments

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Wow. Congratulations, but what an ordeal!

[magid.livejournal.com]

The hazards of living in an old building that was gut rehabbed in the 80s...

At least it's done. And he found the thing that was causing the disposal to make horrible noises (it had eluded me). And I excavated some floor while I was waiting.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

That hardware store in Inman Square is a pretty amazing place for a relatively small independent store.

[magid.livejournal.com]

It's been hit or miss for me. I don't remember what it was I was looking for last time, but they didn't have it. Plus, the frustration of hours that aren't very late (plus no Sundays), which is why I don't always think of it before, say, Tag's.

[breedingimperf.livejournal.com]

aaaargh.

but happy endings are good?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, happy endings good. And, hey, I was forced to deal with a house thing, rather than just living with it being problematic, which is also good.

[(Anonymous)]

How complicated! You certainly did need a plumber. I'm relieved for you that the situation was able to be resolved before Shabbat, without going into a third hour on the clock, and without further dominoes falling.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I was incredibly glad it was resolved with just one plumber visit; the idea of having to live without a kitchen sink even overnight was unpleasant (and while I technically could have cooked for Shabbat without it... that wouldn't've been pretty).